Afghanistan

David Loyn, the only reporter with the Taliban when they took Kabul in 1996, takes issue with military historian Thomas Tulenko’s analysis of Britain’s 19th-century invasions of Afghanistan, first published in June 1980.

Continuing his series on how cartoonists have seen events great and small, Mark Bryant looks at the coverage of one of ‘Victoria’s little wars’.

Roland Quinault discusses Gladstone’s view of the Second Afghan War both in opposition and during his premiership.

Sebastian Balfour recalls the use and effects of chemical warfare during, and after, the early decades of the twentieth century.

Bruce Collins considers the mixture of adventurism, disaster, and lethal reprisal that marked British activities in Afghanistan under Victoria